Wednesday, June 3

Trek America Update | The Final Countdown!

If you've been following my blog and channel for a while, you'll know I'm off to America end of June for almost three weeks with Trek America. If you're new, be sure to catch up with THIS post first! In summary though, I'm doing the Westerner 2 BLT starting in LA and I'm beyond excited.

Since January, I've had lots change in my life. I moved to my dads and after a few extra things to pay for which I didn't quite account for, I had to get myself a second job. (Technically third if you count this too). It's done me the world of good though and I've finally paid off my invoice and have enough to take away with me too. YIPEE!

I've also had to learn how to budget and save my pennies which I shared recently HERE. Today though, I thought I'd summarize how my planning has been going since I booked it in January!

Finding my fellow trekkers ♡After a few tweets using the hashtag #trekamerica, I quickly found a girl named Lauren who has done trek before and is in the same group as me. She's super lovely and is bringing a friend, so that was 3 of us out of a possibly 14 already. About two weeks later, we found a few more fellow trekkers and Lauren started a Facebook Group to make it nice and easy to get to know each other. So far, we've found 11 out of potential 13/14 of us however, Trek America recently opened up our 'Trek Live' group meaning we should be able to find the remaining people we're going to be travelling with now!

Getting to & from the airports ♡I've booked myself a coach from Bournemouth to Heathrow which leaves ridiculously early on the day of travel but was really inexpensive booking in advance. I've also found out that when I land, I can ring my hotel and they'll tell me where I can get a free shuttle bus which makes my life nice and easy, especially being on my own in the middle of LA.

American SIM card ♡Trek America did an offer to get a free sim card when you loaded $20 on it. I ordered myself one and am planning on using it in an old blackberry phone of mine. This will allow me to have an 'american' phone number and is cheaper to make calls in case of any emergencies. Chances are I won't need or use it much, but I didn't have much to lose by having it.

Summer clothes ♡It's been weirdly really cold and rainy still in the UK so I haven't really had the opportunity to dig out my summer clothes. Having said that, I've made a packing list and started organising some of the clothes I'd like to take with me. Closer to the time, I plan on creating more outfits which'll help me when deciding what to throw on that day whilst on trek. I'm also considering getting some packing cubes which'll make it easy to pack and organise whilst I'm on the move.

Prepaid travel card ♡I need to take quite a lot of cash with me for food and excursions and have been looking at pre-paid travel cards. So far, I'm liking the Travelex one as there's an app which you can check your balance on the go and they don't take charges for withdrawing cash. I can also order my cash at the same time which is handy. If you know of a better card though, let me know!

Plugs & electrics ♡I got myself an American plug socket and someone has also lent me their America iPhone Charger which is super handy! On eBay, I picked up a dual car charger so more than one of us can charge at a time. I don't know how handy it will be but for £1.74, I thought you can't go too wrong. I also used eBay to get a spare battery for my Canon S120 for vlogging, that camera is the worst for holding charge so at least I've got back up. I've also had to think about having plenty of memory so I have two 32GB memory cards too.

Travel apps ♡

I've downloaded some awesome apps in preparation for my trip. 'My Day' has allowed me countdown how long I've got left to go. However, I've also got apps for the travel card, sim card to top up on the go and even been checking SeatGuru, so when I check in online I know which seats are good or not, hahah!

Last minute purchases ♡I popped into town yesterday and got lots of last minute toiletries which might come in handy. Tissues, bug bite cream, mini sewing kit, bonjela and paracetamol. Planning on doing a 'what's in my travel wash bag' type video soon though! I also picked up a mini fan in wilko, some clear bags for packing and a shower cap to cover dirty shoes! Last but not least, I visited Primark and got some nice new underwear and a thin white dressing gown, for the times I might be using communal showers and sharing rooms with others.

As you can tell, I'm super organised and I have a packing list on my laptop ready to go. I've also put a little word document together with all my trek details for my family too!